Sacramento's Nonprofit Shakedown

Democrats and the tort bar target the Catholic Church.

May 30, 2013 7:27 p.m. ET

Democrats have a supermajority in the California legislature, and one fear is that they'll use it to punish their political enemies. Consider the bill moving fast in the legislature to suspend California's statute of limitations on child sex abuse torts and expose nonprofits to unlimited litigation.

The main targets are two liberal betes noires: the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church, which is still paying off debts from claims filed in 2003 when the legislature suspended the statute of limitations for a year. Nearly 1,000...